Stereotypes In Battleship, By Walter Lippman

According to Walter Lippman, the systems of stereotypes are the core of our personal traditions and lives. Stereotypes are a well-ordered consistent picture of the world, to which our habits, our tastes, our comforts, our values and our hopes have made themselves thoroughly and widely known throughout the world. They may not be a complete picture of the world, but they are the pictures inside our heads of a possible world to which we have adapted ourselves to. In that world, people and things have their well-known places, and they do certain things that are expected of them. Stereotypes are important because they are the projection upon the world of our own sense based on our values, our positions in the world, and the rights that we have. Lippmann argued that stereotypes
are necessary for our placement in the world. They are a way of simplifying the different cultures and societies of the world and without them, our perception of the world would be confusing. Stereotypes have the potential for limiting one’s views of the world and possibly, legitimizing the dominance of certain groups in society based upon these limited perceptions. Thus, stereotypes may or may not be close to the social realities they represent. This, according to Lippmann, is "because for the most part, we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see. We pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture." Stereotypes teach us that it takes on two forms. One of a “vicious progression”, which is rooted from ignorance, misconceptions, and negative images and attitudes. This form of stereotype provides a misleading mental picture or set of images that develop into prejudice, bias, and eventually racism. The second form that is more solely based on positivity, where a stereotype comes across as having a positive message about a certain society, culture, race, religion etc.
Part Two: According to you:
Merriam dictionary defines a meme as “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” On the internet, this takes place in the form of a picture, usually with some sort of caption on it. Up until I took this class, I used to go through the memes that came out on the internet and get a little laugh out of them.
However, as I became more observant of my surroundings and attempted to notice the different representations of gender around me, memes opened up a new window for me. These memes, I realized, serve as windows into the culture I am part of. The meme I chose is a simple meme with a very little caption. It appears to be two frames that show the box cover of the game “Battleship”. In the top half of the meme (first frame) it shows the cover of the box with two males (father and son) sitting at a table after dinner playing and enjoying the game of battleship. Then, in the bottom half of the meme, (second frame) it shows a close up of the box that clearly shows the two females (mother and daughter) doing the dishes. The caption at the bottom simply says “Women, know your place.” These few words have a very large meaning and it plays an exclusive role in the gender roles that take part in our society today. It does use the “joke” that is commonly know that women should be in the kitchen and that that’s their place. I took my time looking for the perfect meme because gender stereotypes have become more and more relevant in media. It bothers me because even after all of this time and
the many years of women fighting for their rights and equality, society still looks at females as the weaker and smaller sex. A closer look at this particular meme makes it evident that it is filled with gender stereotypes. In certain ways, it reflects the view of males and females in society. These views include: how men and women are supposed to act, how they really act, and at times how they are seen, and how they really are supposed to be seen. In this case, the men are seen as fun carefree males who have no worries in the world and everything is done and taken care of for them. Whereas the females belong in the kitchen cleaning up after the men and knowing that their place is to be “the housewife”. While reflecting on the definition of meme and stereotypes, these memes are very influential. They take certain stereotypes and reinforce them or even create new stereotypes to promote different representations of gender. When I began a critical evaluation of this meme, a pattern with a recurrent theme became evident to me within other memes that I began to look at. Majority of the memes had to do with females. They sometimes idealize them, fantasize them, but they mostly degrade them. These are the types of images that the youth in society are growing up looking at. What are the memes doing? They are creating certain expectations and promoting stereotypes on how people, but in this particular case, females, are supposed to act in society as well as social media, which is a major part of our culture today. If Walter Lippman were to see this gender stereotypical meme he would probably say that this meme is normal. It gives us the view of how society and our world looks at females still today. That everyone made up these ideas of how everyone should act and that this is part of what makes up our views, values, beliefs, and culture. If we really wanted to put a stop to it, we would have by now. But this is the representation that woman have today. It is what we have perceived to be the truth.